A team of astronomers has used asteroseismology, or the study of stellar oscillations, to accurately measure the distance of stars from the Earth. Their research examined thousands of stars and checked the measurements taken during the Gaia mission to study the near Universe.
For most of us, the countless bright spots in the nighttime sky all seem to be stars. But in fact, some of those spots are actually planets, or distant suns, or even entire galaxies located billions of light years away. Just what you’re looking at depends on how far it is from Earth. That’s why measuring the exact distance to celestial objects is such an important goal for astronomers – and one of the biggest challenges they’re currently tackling.
Gaia Mission Contributions
It was with this in mind that the European Space Agency (ESA) launched the Gaia mission ten years ago. Data collected by the Gaia satellite are opening up a window into the near Universe, providing astronomic measurements – such as position, distance from the Earth and movement – on nearly two billion stars.
At EPFL, the Standard Candles and Distances research group headed by Prof. Richard Anderson is aiming to measure the current expansion of the Universe and sees Gaia as a valuable tool. “Gaia increased by a factor of 10,000 the number of stars whose parallaxes are measured thanks to a massive gain in DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202347919